Black Fist O.S.T.

After a cold and rain soaked winter, resulting in far too many missed weekends of bootsale digging, my last couple of outings have proved really fruitful. Besides a good lot of highly collectible German Prog Rock, (which I've already shifted on for nice money) the Sunday just gone turned up Les McCann's "Layers" L.P. as well as the Blackbyrds self titled debut (I've wanted this for a long time for the "Me & Him" break). Today I took home the "Joe Farrell Quartet" album on C.T.I. as well as this - the original soundtrack for a film called "Black Fist".

I nearly sh*t myself when I pulled it out of a box of nothingness. I've never seen or heard it mentioned before and the cover ticks all the right boxes for a killer Blaxploitation score, besides maybe the date of 1977 which I was trying to convince myself wouldn't matter. Super cool dude sizing up on front cover - check, independent label - check, promotional copy - check (even better - maybe it didn't get a full commercial release), list of interesting artists - check (including drummer Paul Humphrey, as well as a load of other acts I've never heard of) and great song titles - check. My anticipation on the journey home hadn't been as high for a long time.

So obviously it's the first record on the turntable when I get in and settle down after making a nice cuppa. And after all the initial excitement, guess what? It's a bit of an anti-climax, and if I'm being completely honest, generally pretty disappointing. Paul Humphrey's sole track, "Humphrey's Overture", is exactly what I was hoping it wouldn't be - upbeat disco-tinged averageness, typical of the period. And the the same goes for much, if not, all of Side-A, with nothing being worthy of more than one listen. My concerns about the date were unfortunately being realised. Having said that, Side-B is an 100% improvement, kicking off with a half decent slow track called "L.A. Gray" by Geraldine Kaye. Nothing great or outstanding, but much better than anything on the flip. When track two begins though, with a dope Hip-Hop loop, all is forgiven. Art & Ron's (producer Ron Castle and arranger Art Freeman) "Can't Stop Talkin" sounds like a Ghostface break and is exactly the type of music I was hoping for throughout. Thankfully they deliver the goods again immediately afterwards with "I'm Your Man", another drama style instrumental I'll be recording and burning for repeat listening. Unfortunately that's about it though, the interesting sounding, and looking, artists like Sam & Jus' Us, Velvet Fire, Sam Shabrin, Denise Gordy and Bishop Mounger fail to deliver anything note worthy that I would ever feel the need to play again.

I know I shouldn't complain about finding records like this at my local booty for pence, and although I've got a couple of really nice tracks to come back to, overall, this is probably the most disappointing find I have had for ages. Popsike and eBay reveal going rates and asking prices of far more than I would ever recommend anyone paying. For the cover and the two tracks maybe I'd say a tenner is pretty fair - any more than that and I think, like me, you'd probably be pretty disappointed.

Anyway, check out "Can't Stop Talkin" cause it's a banger. I'm 99% sure this has been sampled and the name Tony Starks is definitely ringing bells, maybe Lewis Parker though. Gonna listen through some albums later and try to locate it...

Art & Ron "Can't Stop Talkin" (1977 Happy Fox Records)